Newsletter Term 4 Week 6
Principal's Report
Greetings one and all
We have had a busy week so far this week.
Monday morning saw our first assembly for a while. Monday run was back on the agenda and enjoyed by all.
On Tuesday we had a visit from Mr Tom Sexton the Director of Catholic Education of the Ballarat Diocese. After morning visits to St Arnaud and Donald, Mr Sexton dropped in for some lunch and a chat.
On Tuesday afternoon, we had a load of soft fall bark chips dropped off for the playground which Randall Perry will come and spread any day. We also had a visit from Penny Irish who is the Property and facilities advisor for DOBCEL. Penny discussed next years playground audit that will take place in April and discussed options for an outside learning space that we have applied for a grant for.
I thought today was my last day at the helm but after an appointment with the doctor this morning, Frank has been told that his foot is healing nicely but he is not yet right to return. He is aiming now to be back before the end of term.
Tomorrow is our first transition day. We welcome the five 2022 foundation students, Mia, Lila, Madelyn, Vinnie and Nate. We hope you enjoy your transition days and look forward to seeing you full time in 2022.
Let's hope we don't get too much rain tonight and tomorrow and that the farmers can get started on harvest soon.
Cheers
Cate Olive
Foundation, 1, 2 Class News
This week in the Prep/1/2 class, the students have been working hard on revising and practicing the range of single sounds, digraphs and trigraphs that they have learnt and developed over the year. During our daily OLSEL sessions, the students demonstrate an excellent understanding of how to break apart words, how to consider the correct letter combination that they should use when spelling and have incorporated a range of these learnt oral language strategies into their reading and writing too. I have been particularly impressed with the effort of our students to explore and develop new vocabulary during our oral language sessions; where they explore synonyms, antonyms, real life connections and coming up with an ‘easy to understand’ student definition for the new learnt words, so that the students can connect and make it their own – hopefully leading to a greater bank of words that the students can use in other areas of future learning.
In Numeracy the students have been learning about halves and quarters and have learnt how to name a whole shape, item or collection and then break it into equal parts. The students learnt that a whole can be broken into parts and for it to be classed as a fraction, the parts should be equal or ‘the same’. The students have enjoyed creating ‘Apples’ with the seeds organized into two equal sides or 2 halves and ‘Pizzas’ which were cut into quarters or fourths and dressed with ingredients of their own choice.
On Friday, we made the most of the glorious weather and walked down to the ‘Traveler’s Rest’ park by the Avoca River as a whole school. With the deluge of rain recently, it was interesting to see how far the water had risen in the river and to discuss the changes taking place as well as sharing past stories and experiences of farming, flooding, crops and the Charlton floods from 2011 amongst the group.
Foundation,1,2 Art
3, 4, 5, 6 Class News
Literacy: Students are working on persuasive writing. They are using the question ‘Was Ned Kelly a Hero or a Villain?’ to form an opinion and write a persuasive text using their knowledge of Ned Kelly’s life from our reading texts this term. Students are working on appropriate structure, language and connectives to write a clear argument.
Maths: Students are continuing to revise concepts covered throughout the year. This week they are focused on measuring mass of objects using balances, scales and conversions in grams, kilograms and tonnes. Students are using this knowledge to complete relevant word problems, sums and conversions between units of measurement.
Humanities: Students have been learning about the Australian Government. We have been learning about what Parliament, the House of Representatives and the Senate are.
River Walk
Last Friday, the staff and children went for a leisurely stroll down to the Travellers Rest for morning tea and to have a look at the rising river. Mrs Olive bought us all an icecream for a treat. Unfortunately we couldn't go on the playground becuase there were other people there, but we went for a walk over the swing bridge. It was great fun.
Below we have some photos of the Prep,1,2 students on the bridge.
Rememberance Day
Today the school leaders led us in a prayer gathering. We acknowledged the courage and sacrifice of those who served their country and acknowledged our responsibility to work for the peace they fought hard to achieve. The Foundation ,1,2 class made poppies and our foundation students laid a wreath. We listened to the last post and stood in silence for one minute so we could remember all of the soldiers who fought so we can have the life we have today.
Community News
Humour
O’Rourke, the barber, was hearing complaints from his customer about the price of his services. “I tell you O’Rourke, you Dublin barbers have a stranglehold on the citizens. I was in New York just last month, and you charge me double what they charge there.”
“That may be true, Sir,” said the barber, “but think of the airfare.”
"Did you hear that the man who invented Fairy Bread passed away?
I can't remember his name but I heard there were hundreds and thousands at his funeral."
(This joke was compliments of our compliance officer Donna Wood. If you have a good joke for the newsletter, feel free to email it through to admin@sjcharlton.catholic.edu.au)